Critical Asian Studies

Between Exception and Rule

Ho Chi Minh City's Political Economy Under Reform

Abstract:

This article challenges the all-too-common assumption in the literature
on Vietnam that Ho Chi Minh City's political economy has evolved
differently from the rest of the country since the economic reforms of
the late 1980s. Questioning the association of Ho Chi Minh City with
reform, the article charts the rise of new state business interests and
the growth of the “gatekeeping” state in the city during the 1990s, as
party-state institutions moved to exploit new opportunities that
emerged with the dismantling of the central plan and the growth of the
market economy. In light of this characterization, the article argues
that rather than seeing the city as set apart from the rest of Vietnam
we can speak of a “common reform political economy.” If correct, this
position casts doubt on existing literature, which commonly explains Ho
Chi Minh City's supposedly distinctive evolution under reform with
reference to its unique pre-1975 history, especially the period from
1954 to 1975 when the country was divided along the seventeenth
parallel. Asking how we might marry the fact ofHoChi Minh City's
distinctive history with the reality of its un-distinctive evolution
under reform, the article concludes by calling for a rethink not only
of the legacy of 1954-75 for Ho Chi Minh City's latter-day development
but also of the way in which the city's shorter period under central
planning nevertheless left its mark.